Online fury as posters condemn companies

There was widespread outrage and condemnation across the Internet in China following the CCTV report exposing excess chromium in medicine capsules.

Weibo, China's microblogging service, was flooded with comments, mostly posts of condemnation, after the program aired on Sunday.

"Is it only the capsules which pose problems? Can we still believe in these pharmaceutical companies without any conscience?" said one microblogger with the name "Jia Xiaoxue."

"Lixiaoyue" was similarly skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry.

"Are we still able to be cured, given the medicines coming to our rescue are poisonous themselves?"

Computer hackers also did their bit to join the condemnation in their own way.

Early yesterday, the official website of Tonghua Golden Horse Pharmaceutical Industry Co Ltd (thjm.cn), a listed company on the Shenzhen stock exchange, was attacked by hackers, who managed to replace the home page with their own message condemning the company.

"How can you make capsules from the broken shoes I threw away? Every hacker in China should join the attack against these criminal domestic companies," the hackers said in the message.

However, many Internet users called on supervision authorities to perform better and establish a well-functioning mechanism to improve food and drug safety in the first place.

"Jia Xiaoxue" said that what the Chinese people really needed was responsible companies, as well as a strict and feasible supervision mechanism.

Just last week, an unconfirmed report said that industrial gelatin may have been used in the production of solid yogurt and puddings, but the claim was soon dismissed as untrue by major dairy companies.